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128 pages

English

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Description

A beautiful, photo-rich companion book to the internationally distributed IMAX film of the same name, Wings Over Water celebrates the prairie wetlands of North America and the birds that live and breed in this critical habitat.

Covering 300,000 square miles stretching from Canada through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa, the prairie wetlands are one of Earth’s most important, yet little-known, ecosystems. More than half of all North American migratory waterfowl and 96 species of songbirds breed and nest there, and more than 60 percent of the continent’s ducks are hatched there. Wings Over Water immerses readers in this awe-inspiring, essential region, using more than 300 breathtaking photos and inspiring essays from some of North America’s foremost conservationists to shine a spotlight on these critical breeding grounds and the need to protect them.

Wings Over Water is a joint venture of the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, which works to secure the future of hunting, fishing, and land management; Ducks Unlimited Inc., Wetlands America Trust, and Ducks Unlimited Canada, the world’s largest nonprofit organizations dedicated to conserving North America’s disappearing wetland and waterfowl habitats; and the National Audubon Society, the world’s oldest nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to bird conservation.

Sujets

América del Norte

Prairie Pothole Region

National Audubon Society

Photojournalism

Photography

North America

Ducks Unlimited

Michael Keaton

IMAX

Conservation

Informations

Publié par	Girl Friday Books
Date de parution	05 avril 2022
Nombre de lectures	2
EAN13	9781954854567
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	18 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0650€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2022 by Wings for Wetlands, LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record- ing, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Flashpoint™ Books, Seattle
www.flashpointbooks.com
Produced by Girl Friday Productions
Cover and interior design: Zach Hooker
Photo research: Micah Schmidt
Development & editorial: Katherine Richards
Production editorial: Laura Dailey
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-954854-55-0
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-954854-56-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021923821
First edition

Contents

Foreword
Michael Keaton
Saving North America’s Amazon
Charles S. Potter, Jr., Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, Executive Producer
Prairie Inspiration
Athena Kildegaard
The Making of Wings Over Water
Chris Dorsey, Dorsey Pictures, Executive Producer
A History of Wetlands Conservation
John Cooper
The Unlimited Wonder of Waterfowl
T. Edward Nickens, Ducks Unlimited
Protecting Birds and Helping Us All
Glenn Olson, National Audubon Society
Scientific Advisers
Photo Credits
Index
About the Filmmaking Team

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125
126
128

Edited by Kerry Luft
Principal photography by Gary Kramer

Foreword

By Michael Keaton

Academy Award–nominated actor Michael Keaton, the narrator of Wings Over Water 3D , is a passionate conser- vationist dedicated to the preservation of habitats that sustain wildlife in the Great Plains and beyond.

W

hen I was a boy in Pennsylvania, I loved being outside. Summer, winter, spring, or fall, I found adventure in the outdoors and marveled at its gifts and miracles and wondered about its mysteries.
Why did the seasons change? Why did animals hide during the day and come out at dusk? And where did the ducks, geese, and other birds go when winter waned and spring was around the cor- ner? The great vees of migrating waterfowl told me they were head- ed north, but where?
That final question can be answered simply: they were going home.
In the case of many birds, home is the prairie wetlands of North America, more than 300,000 square miles on the Great Plains. As the glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago, they left behind this land- scape of rich grasslands and shallow basins, a paradise for birds. It’s home to avocets and phalaropes, pelicans and sparrows, bobolinks and warblers—more than 150 species in all, including many of the ducks and geese I saw as a boy.

It’s estimated that more than half of the continent’s waterfowl use the prairie wetlands for breeding, including iconic ducks like the mallard and canvasback. Others, such as snow geese and Canada geese, stop over on their migration to their breeding grounds farther north, resting and taking on fuel for the flights ahead.
The journeys these birds take to return home each spring can only be described as heroic. Imagine a tiny songbird, weighing little more than a page or two in this book, crossing the Gulf of Mexico and then the continental United States. That’s just one of the migra- tory miracles that end in the prairie wetlands; there are scores more.
You may never have heard of this ecosystem, though its biodiver- sity rivals any on Earth. It benefits humankind as well, storing excess water and filtering it, mitigating the potential for downstream flood- ing, and recharging the aquifers that allow farmers to harvest the grain that feeds millions of people worldwide.
My friends in conservation say that the prairies are North America’s Amazon, and I think they’re right.

While wonderful, diverse ecosystems such as the Amazon and Everglades have powerful allies fighting to protect them, the prairie wetlands have been championed only by a small but devoted group of conservationists—mostly waterfowl hunters and other bird lov- ers. Their efforts have protected many thousands of acres, yet since westward expansion reached the prairies in the 1800s, more than half of the prairie wetlands have disappeared.
When I learned about the plans to create an IMAX 3D movie call- ing attention to the prairies and their birds, I knew I wanted to help. After all, I know something about birds.
Narrating the film Wings Over Water was an honor, and so is writ- ing the foreword to this companion book. Watching the film and reading the book have brought me back to my boyhood, renewed my love for the outdoors, and raised my hopes that future generations of children will have the opportunity to marvel over North America’s magnificent migrations and will know where the birds go:
Home.

Sandhill cranes ( Grus canadensis ) in flight.

| 7

A flock of mallards ( Anas platyrhynchos ) share the water with pintails ( Anas acuta ) and redheads ( Aythya americana ). Mallards and pintails are dabbling ducks that mostly eat what’s near the surface of the water, while redheads find much of their food farther beneath the water’s surface.

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Saving North America’s Amazon

By Charles S. Potter, Jr., Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, Executive Producer

Charles S. Potter, Jr., is president and CEO of the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Illinois, and a lifelong conservationist and advocate for waterfowl.

magine North America’s prairies at the dawn of recorded history: more than 100 million acres of grasslands dotted by untold wet- lands carved by retreating glaciers, an ecologically rich region to rival the Amazon or the Serengeti.
This rolling landscape nurtured billions of birds, including water- fowl, songbirds, shorebirds, and cranes in the greatest concentra- tions ever known to humans. The great flocks blackened the horizon as they arrived each spring to breed, and again each fall as they flew south with the young of the year, an annual ritual that has lasted for millennia.
The prairie wetlands stretched from modern-day Iowa and Minnesota, through the Dakotas and Montana, and across what would become three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Their vast ecological significance for birds and other species remains unequaled in North America. Some 50 million peo- ple rely on this ecosystem for clean water.
Only remnants of this immense landscape remain, and they are slowly disappearing despite decades of noble and dedicated work by conservationists in the public and private sectors, especially the

US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, the National Audubon Society, Delta Waterfowl, and The Nature Conservancy. Few are aware of this looming catastrophe, for despite their significance, the prairies are not well known.
This is about to change.
This book and the IMAX 3D movie Wings Over Water are aimed at awakening the continent and the world to the need to protect the prairie wetlands, North America’s greatest ecological asset. The prairies are key to abundant birds, clean water, and sufficient grasslands to keep our continent healthy. Without them, we face a future of depleted water resources, decreased water quality, ruin- ous flooding, and a greatly diminished ability to sequester carbon. The implications for the continent’s bird populations are even more bleak.
When the prairie landscape is gone, it will be too late for us, and our planet.
To those who do not hunt, the idea that people can respect or love the animals they hunt is contradictory, perhaps even hypocritical.

I

White-fronted geese ( Anser albifrons ) are named for the white band surrounding their bills.

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More than 11,000 years ago, receding glaciers scoured the land that would become known as the Great Plains of North America, leaving behind a vast network of grasslands and small, shallow depressions called prai- rie potholes. The region spans parts of five states— Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa—and three Canadian provinces—Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The prairie wetlands are among the most vibrant ecosystems on our planet. More than half of North America’s migratory waterfowl nest in the region, and scores of other bird species either nest in or pass through the region on their way to their own breeding grounds farther north.
Though some of these wetlands are permanent, many potholes are seasonal or temporary, relying on
snowmelt and precipitation to refill them each spring. Because most of them are small—less than an acre— they often dry up or disappear altogether during droughts. Many thousands of potholes have been drained and their rich soils planted with crops.
Besides their importance to birds and other wildlife, the prairie wetlands provide great bene- fits to humans. By absorbing and filtering water, they ease flooding and recharge groundwater sys- tems. Their grasslands protect the soil from erosion and mitigate the effects of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Conservation organizations consider the prairie wetlands to be among the world’s most threatened habitats and rank them among their leading priorities for protection and restoration.

About the Prairie Wetlands